Is 'Perfection' the 8th Deadly Sin?
I casually glanced at the pages that my co-passenger, a pilot returning home, was reading. Instantly, it gained my full attention. I began peeping into the page to ensure that I wasn't misinterpreting what he was reading. It was something like, "Perfection is bad, and don't aim for it. Don't waste your time perfecting, just do it. It's ok if you don't get it right now; eventually you'll get it. Don't miss the opportunity, etc., etc."
What if the pilot wanted to put it to practice? We know his precision is worth thousands of lives, with at least a hundred every day!
For many professions, perfection is a prerequisite: surgeons, drivers(especially on Indian roads), sportspeople, and many others.
Yet, we read and hear things like:
"The search for perfection is good as a hobby, not as a profession, or method of operation."
"Perfection is too costly, too inefficient when it comes to commercial causes or day-to-day affairs."
"Perfection is God's business; we are human."
"Life can become stagnant in search of perfection."
I got a geyser from Crompton and when I opened the package, the control panel was dented and it popped out. There is no apparent sign of transit damage. So someone didn't inspect it before packing. So they kindly agreed to provide a replacement, but it would take 10 days longer and cost them more.
One of my coachees, a young CEO, daughter of a wealthy founder who is about to take the reins, kept me waiting for as long as 90 minutes for her first coaching session. In my first coaching session, I understood her problem was time management and over-promising, and she agreed to bite off what she can chew, every day. But when she repeated the same behavior for the second session, I indefinitely cancelled her sessions. I don't know if joining a meeting on-time is counted under "perfection", but none of you will want to wait for others in meetings. Every sales person reading this piece knows the importance of showing up on time for meetings.
As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts before perfecting the light bulb. You can call it 1000 trials, or experiments, or attempts, but he didn't launch the bulb before it met his expectations. And the his perfection paved way. Else no one would have taken his invention seriously and the world, most likely, would have relied on moonlight for many more years before someone else perfected the design.
Google is known for its collection of wildly popular products, from Search to Maps to Android. But not everything the company touches turns to gold. Interestingly, there is a Google graveyard; a free and open source list of discontinued Google services, products, devices, and apps. There are 274 failed products of Google.
Check out https://killedbygoogle.com.
How many of you have bottomless pockets to bury so many bodies? I know many founders who just failed once but lost their lifetime savings, retirement fund, and had to find a job.
If perfection has a cost, so does imperfection!
If you have read "Ikigai-The Japanese Secret to a Happy and Long Life", it is punctuated with examples of how professionals from all walks of life dedicate their lives to perfection and end up finding joy.
If you have ever read a book titled "Masala Lab-The Science of Indian Cooking by Krish Ashok", you will find a "biryani algorithm" that outlines how to perfectly cook the rice, fry the onions just right, marinate the meat, or vegetables, and layer all of these. It's an art of perfection!
Yet many who enjoy the fruits of other perfection every day, those would are put off by few minutes delay in of OLA driver or Swiggy delivery boy are proud imperfectionists!
So is "perfection" the 8th deadly sin in today's world? Should you dump perfection and 'just do it' the way you wish?
I'm going to allow you to judge this for yourself.
But here's mine.
When perfection should be a goal,
Client deliverables (Something you are being paid to do),
Health and safety related,
Trust-oriented tasks like promises you make for which you may (not) get paid (meetings, product promises),
Repetitive tasks,
Regulation compliance,
In general, whenever the target or standard is clear.
Where perfection shouldn't be a goal.
For social experiments aimed at improving the status quo,
For business experiments, where we want to test what is accepted in the market,
Prototypes for validation,
High complexities problems (High VUCA),
New features that are 'delighters' and not 'must-be's' (as per Kano Model),
Scenarios in which the outcomes or goals are unclear and you are pursuing a vision, such as being the best marketer,
Personal development and learning new skills: Don't hesitate, just try it out and you will learn. But make sure you're not penalizing your customers!
Fixing relationship issues: a positive change is always well appreciated.
That's it from me folks! If you wish to share your views or opinion, just drop a note to neil@collaborat.com.